Thank you, faithful readers, for patiently waiting with us for our new website.  Bad news, it’s still not ready.  Good news, it is awfully close — close enough, in fact, that we can share a taste of it with you.  The temporary link is http://parentalrights.easycgi.com/.  Feel free to click on it and take a look [...]

[Editor: Considering Homeschooling is proud to present this special guest column by Michedolene Hogan of Unique Parenting.] By: Michedolene Hogan When parents send their children to school, they expect for their children to be taught the necessary academic skills appropriate for their age.  Yet, there scope of education is growing at an alarming rate.  Schools have begun to overstep their boundaries and assume the role of the home in many aspects such as the socialization of our children. According to the 2003 Webster's New World dictionary, to socialize means to make fit for living in a group.  This definition is similar to that found in the 1810 Merriam-Webster which states: To make social: especially to fit or train for a social environment.  In order to be properly socialized, children must be able to be sociable, having a disposition to associate and converse with others.  Children must have the ability to join in company or society and to unite in a general interest.  Children must also have the ability to work in conjunction with others in the community and conform to laws.  Children must exhibit respect for authority and an understanding of how the world works.  Observation and practice are the main tools that children employ in order to learn these social skills.  Based on the aforementioned necessary skills one would assume that the best place to learn such skills is in a classroom surrounded with peers and authority figures, right?  Wrong. What kids really learn in traditional public education settings Traditional public schools settings are not as idealistic.  Children may be surrounded by their peers but, these are not the best role models for social behavior.  In schools, children often meet peers who are involved in delinquency, low academic achievement and exhibiting behavior problems.  These are the children who get the most attention from their teachers and as a result, stand out to their peers.  In the end, our children learn an unacceptable concept of social behavior by practicing what they observe.  Despite this reality, the school continues to take the lead in training children for social situations. Raymond and Dorothy Moore, in their research on the validity of Early Childhood Education, determined that enrollment in formal schooling before ages 8-12 was not as effective as projected, but put children’s development at risk.  They presented evidence of a correlation between the following childhood problems and the increasingly earlier enrollment of students: Juvenile delinquency Nearsightedness Increased enrollment of students in special education classes Behavioral problems Early enrollment in schools interrupts bonds and emotional development that children form in the home with parents.  This damage, as found by the Raymond and Dorothy Moore, is not repaired in an institutional setting. Over 8,000 studies were conducted in the 1970’s by the Moores.  In the end, they concluded that, “Where possible, children should be withheld from formal schooling until at least ages 8-10” because, “children are not mature enough for formal school programs until their senses, coordination, neurological development and cognition are ready.” Another theory, developed by teacher John Caldwell Holt, stated that “academic failure of school children was caused by pressure placed on children in schools.”  He declared in 1980, “I want to make it clear that I don't see home schooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools.  I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education.  Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were.” The school setting expects children to handle a whole new set of emotions as early as 3 years of age.  At this tender age, children do not even understand their emotions, much less know how to appropriately deal with them.  Children end up imitating their peers, whom as stated earlier may be involved in a number of behavior issues.  The impact of a child’s sociability is an absolutely harmful progression away from positive sociability and self-concept. This progression is best explained in When Education Becomes Abuse: A Different Look at the Mental Health of Children. Here is their explanation of the sequence of emotions experienced by young children in early childhood settings: Uncertainty as the child leaves the family for a less secure environment Puzzlement at the new pressures and restrictions of the classroom Frustration because they are not ready to handle the regimentation of formal lessons (unready learning tools – senses, cognition, brain hemispheres, coordination) Hyperactivity growing out of nerves and jitters from frustration Failure which quite naturally flows from the four experiences above Delinquency which is failure's twin Benefits of Home Schooling Learning in the home is the best option.  Home is the where true learning, exploring the world, takes place.  ‘Learning’ in this case includes not only academic education but also an understanding of the social environment of the world.  Teaching children in the home has countless benefits including: Home provides the proper atmosphere and value system to build upon.  Home sets the example of honoring and respecting authority.  Home teaches children how to be part of their community both physically and spiritually. Children with home as their base of exploration benefit from more time spent with warm, responsive parents, limited time with peers and free exploration under parental guidance.  The parents are in control of the social influences and the child isn't exposed to the whirlwind of emotions that come with early childhood education.  Children build a strong bond with the parents as the center example for proper social behavior and are given more opportunities to be among their community in a guided manner. The National Home Education Research Institute conducted a survey in 2003 of 7,300 adults who had been home schooled.  Their astounding results once again make a case for the home; 71% home schooled adults are active and involved in their community compared to 37% of U.S. Adults from a traditional education background.  76% of home schooled adults between 18-24 voted within the last five years compared to 29%.  The numbers are even greater in larger groups at 95% compared with 53% of traditional schooled adults.  The survey also reported that 58.9% of home schooled adults reported that they are “very happy” with life compared with 27.6% for the general U.S. Population.  73.2% find life “exciting,” compared with 47.3%. Socialization is to make social: especially to fit or train for a social environment.  Children best acquire this skill through the practice and observation in the home, not in the schools.  Raymond and Dorothy Moore recognized this need in their first publication in 1975.  That was just the tip of the iceberg in the research of socialization and teaching children.  Evidence abounds and grows continually to support the home as the best place to socialize our children.  Most recently, the NHERI statistics drive home the essential call to all parents to model their successful and productive adult lives with their children as the best social example to follow. About the Author: Michedolene Hogan lives in a quiet neighborhood of Yucaipa CA with her husband of 15yrs.  Her favorite activities include spending time with her family and crafting fun family activities.  She finds her greatest satisfaction in being a stay at home mom raising healthy children and publishes a bi-weekly newsletter offering advice for building strong families.

Well, you thought that cell phone would keep your kid safe if there was another school shooting.  Who knew the shots would actually be homemade porn made with that very same cell phone?!? File this under the complete pornification of our society.  What's an awkward teen boy do to get a date now?  He sends a girl a picture of his junk. Parents, can I speak frankly here?  If you are not considering homeschooling, you are completely nuts. From the Cincinnati Enquirer: Teens here are taking nude photos of themselves or others, sending them on their cell phones or posting them online. Some teens do it as a joke. For others, it's the new bold pickup line to get a date. A year ago, a 19-year-old Goshen cheerleading coach was charged and prosecuted for a misdemeanor, contributing to the unruliness of a child, for taking a topless photo of herself and a 15-year-old girl. A Glen Este Middle School boy was taken to juvenile court during the last school year for taking explicit photos of his girlfriend. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com last month revealed results of a study that showed 20 percent of teens say they have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves. The results don't surprise local teens, school officials, police officers and others. "If I were to go through the cell phones in this building right now of 1,500 students, I would venture to say that half to two-thirds have indecent photos, either of themselves or somebody else in school," said Jim Brown, school resource officer at Glen Este High School. Turpin High School Principal Peggy Johnson thinks that the results would be similar - about 50-50 - in her building. According to the national study, most teens who send sexually suggestive content send to boyfriends or girlfriends, while others say they send such material to those they want to date or hook up with or to someone they only know online. Brown, who also is Glen Este Middle School's resource officer, said of the 14-year-old boy's cell phone photos last year: "They were as graphic as you would see in any Penthouse magazine, I've been told." The study also showed that 44 percent of teens say it's common for sexually explicit images and text messages - sexting - to be shared with people other than the intended recipient. "Guys who get pictures like this from girls, I don't think girls understand that guys gossip way more than girls," said Taylor McCleod, 17, a Withrow University High School senior who is a teen leader for the Postponing Sexual Involvement program. "And when a guy gets a picture like that, he's not just going to keep it between him and the girl. He's going to take that and show every guy that he knows that knows that girl. And every time somebody looks at her, it's going to be a loss of respect for her." The stakes of taking and sending sexually explicit photos can be high, compared to the thrill at the time. The consequences can range from humiliation to losing out on jobs to going to court. When kids are 14 or 15, Brown said, they don't often make the right decisions. "They think, 'I have the right to decide what's best for me.' The next thing you know, it's on YouTube, and you become an international star because you're exposing part of your body. ... Then, they want to retrieve their good reputation, and they can't." Kids have lost scholarships and jobs because of what's posted on Web sites, Brown said. Many kids have "wised up," taking photos of body parts, but not faces, to avoid detection. And while some teens intend for the suggestive photos to be seen by only one person, they might not think those photos will be forwarded or that something posted on the Internet lives on. "I don't think it even crosses their mind," Daniel "Woody" Breyer, chief deputy prosecutor in Clermont County, said. "I think that kids are in the moment. What's going to happen today? What are we doing tonight? What are we doing this weekend?" Going to court might not cross their minds, either. Prosecutors evaluate the intent of the photo when deciding if charges are warranted. "If this is clearly just a joke and everyone involved thinks it's funny, now somebody's mom sees it and gets mad. Technically, a charge could be filed," said Julie Wilson, chief assistant prosecutor and public information officer for the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office. "We're asking police to evaluate if it's a criminal charge or a matter that could be handled by the school or parents. For whatever reason, we have not seen a lot of these cases." With so many implications, why do kids do it? Besides peer pressure, the practice is provoked by what's considered acceptable in this culture, Breyer said, citing videos, such as "Girls Gone Wild." "What is acceptable behavior in our country has just gone through the floor," Breyer said. Christopher Kraus, director of the Postponing Sexual Involvement program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said that in his 20 years of working in adolescent medicine at the hospital, he's yet to see a teenage trend that does not mirror a larger adult trend. "Adolescent sexuality is part of normal human development," Kraus said. "Teens are trying to figure out how to express their sexuality appropriately. They are learning, and they are learning from adults." Kraus, who also is project manager for the Ohio Department of Health's new Guidelines for Sexual Health and Adoption Education, Grades 7-12, said teens are learning how to sort out many sexual messages in the media, including text messages. "Some messages are complimentary. Some are offensive. Some are confusing. Each message is different." 'Kids Gone Wild' Another teen Postponing Sexual Involvement leader, Mariah McCollum, who has received unwanted and unsolicited photos from an acquaintance, talked about the trend. "Every day or every other day, I hear about a new video of one of my peers. There's a new video going around involving sexual activities," said Mariah, a 17-year-old senior at Withrow University High School. "I think it's pretty lame for a male to send you pictures without consent. ... Who says I want to see your private areas?" Mariah said, adding that she lost a lot of respect for the boy who sent it. Meanwhile, Brown said parents need to pay attention to their kids' use of technology. Part of the problem is that kids' inhibitions are knocked away by alcohol-fueled parties, where many sexually explicit photo opportunities occur, he said. "It's 'Kids Gone Wild,' with technology being provided by the parents," he said.

Guest Post By Liz Donnelly of www.FamilyFitnessGuru.com 1. Put on that fitness-minded personality Wether you desire a flat belly or just the time to workout, you have to start it all with your attitude. If you are determined to improve your fitness “no matter what,” the you will most likely be successful. Usually this takes the manifestation of anger with your appearance or lack of energy or poor health. Once you’ve made up your mind to be fit, then it’s time to don that “fit-minded personality.” This is where you tell yourself multiple times daily that you have a tight mid-section, that you deserve a flat belly, if that’s your goal, for instance. Promise yourself that you’ll do something every day to work to that end. Your subconscious will listen to you. It doesn’t decipher between good and bad affirmations, it will simply apply what you always tell it. Are you saying or letting others say that you’re “fat” or “overweight” or “thick-waisted”? Time to change those words into “slender” or “sleek” or “tight”. This is also part of changing yourself from the top down, so to speak. What you think about yourself has great impact on your esteem, performance and outcomes. For example, becoming more aware of your body will get you to focus on changes to make like sitting or standing tall to prevent your belly from popping outward. You can apply fixing yourself from the top down in all aspects of your life not just fitness. (For example, telling yourself to have patience will help you be more inclined to notice those times when you are losing your temper.) The big lesson here, especially if you’re the kind of mom or dad who puts him or herself last on the priority list, is that you do need your self-improvement time and that you do need the increased energy, self confidence, strength, etc. to help you meet your many demands, especially keeping up with your kids, right? So the next step is just as important: 2. Get educated on fitness So many people lose their desire to workout and eat well because they either tune out the important messages that tell them why they must do so, or they possibly are not aware of the reasons. So the more you educate yourself on exercise and nutrition, the better off you’ll be to be inspired to keep yourself and your family health and active. This website is a good place to start. In particular, you can get FREE downloadable booklets on exercises for children and for yourself by subscribing to FamilyFitnessGuru updates. Look at the upper right side of the page above the side margin. There are also a host of books on the topic of fitness and articles in the paper on almost a daily level. Scour what you can and be informed. After all, you know yourself and your family best and you will remain motivated to stay fit the more you keep in touch with good information. 3. Now, it’s time to make time for fitness Getting a better working body does take time. If your particularly out of shape, then you must realize that it probably took some time for you to degenerate to this level. Even if you relatively fit, you still need to build in time for your workouts. Talk it over with your spouse, partner or own brain (if you’re a single parent like me) and literally write down and schedule your workouts. For me, I have to do some of my workouts during the week before I teach my 5:45 a.m. Fitcamp class. At other times, I have to schedule evenings after the kids go to bed. If you are with a partner, then you can alternate times to best suit your schedules, especially if the kids are awake and need supervision. If you’re a single parent and you are the residential parent, meaning the kids are with you the majority of the time, then you will have to do a little creative planning and think outside the box as to how you’ll get child care and get the freedom to work out. Many gyms have daycare-style facilities at which you can leave your kids for the duration of your exercising. Of course, if you don’t belong to a gym, then your next course of action is enlisting babysitting help with neighbors, friends or relatives. The next step is to join a local civic group that has a lot of parents as members (like a Junior Women’s Club (for moms) or Early Childhood PTA or regular PTA (for moms and dads). Some times making inquiries within groups like these will give you leads of fellow parents who are in a babysitting network. There is typically no charge for something like this. Your only payment is being available to watch someone else’s kids. There are options for just about any situation in terms of finding time (really its making the time) for your workouts. If you really want it, then you will make it work for you. (I hope you really want it!) 4. Do it! Nike has it right, if they still use that old tagline, that is. You really just have to start exercising. Your body was made to move. So, if your parts seem the Tin Man’s after a rain storm, then it’s all the more reason to continue to do your workouts consistently and stay “oiled up.” “What’s ample?” you might ask. Building an hour and a half weekly is a good place for beginners (30 minutes 3x/week). From there, you can add an additional 30 minutes. Ideally, you want to put in 5-6 days of movement. And it doesn’t have to be in the form of a formal workout. Schlepping things around in the garden or shoveling snow are excellent ways (depending on how intense) to move and burn calories. “What exercises do I do?” Well, start by signing up for FamilyFitnessGuru updates (look at the upper right area of the side margin) so you can download the “Top 5 Exercises for Moms & Dads.” You’ll get tons of details on how to perform those basic exercises to help you get on the road to fitness. My hope is that you’ll be consistent with your plan and notice results to help you stay motivated. Good luck and keep forging ahead! Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Are your kids on MySpace or Facebook?  Then they may be facing the same dangers that they might in public school.   According to the New York Times and Washington Post, MySpace has deleted 29,000 registered sexual predators from its membership and Facebook is not far behind... and those are just the sexual predators that they found out about! The good news is that there is a full featured, parent driven social networking site on the way just for Christian homeschoolers.  I can't divulge too much right now as the project is still in development, but the principals are interested in finding likeminded Christian homeschoolers as investors and ministry partners for this new online community. If you are interested in becoming an investor or ministry partner in this ground floor opportunity, please email homeschoolspace@gmail.com.

The Starfish Country Home School is looking for someone to help us redesign and maintain our website.

I didn’t manage to get my workout in yesterday. I ran out of disk space on my webhost site and didn’t know how to increase it. I fiddled around with it too long before sending an SOS to support. I ended up doing the Pyramid Pulse II workout today. Everyone else on this challenge is enjoying a week of easier workouts while I am playing catch up. School has been on schedule this week. I spent the last two weeks drilling the days of the week into my little girls’ heads using the Adams Family theme song. So, we took this week off and just let them play. They are still singing the song and moving the hungry caterpillar along the wall where I put large labels for each day. I really enjoyed this unit study. My husband was really surprised at my grocery shopping savings yesterday. It was fun to see the look on his face. So, now I will attempt to do even better next week. I have a lot to learn about coupon stacking and such, but my competitive spirit will get me through the learning curve. Here were the meals today: #1: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, frozen blueberries, 12 almonds and a cup of coffee #2: Post workout shake of 1 scoop protein powder, frozen blueberries, 1/4 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water. #3: Leftover chicken soup from last night’s dinner. #4: apple and almonds #5: Teriyaki pork butt roast, steamed broccoli drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and walnuts #6: Protein pudding Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

My husband and I decided to start following Dave Ramsey’s, Total Money Makeover.  We’re already on a roll by getting our emergency fund saved and actually bit off a bit of our credit card debt.  It’s pretty exciting.  My biggest obstacle has been the grocery bill.  I used to be rather good at spending only $60 every two weeks for groceries, but I just haven’t paid much attention to what I’m spending lately with my busy-ness and I was shocked to discover that one month our bill totalled over $700!  So, I was on a mission today to see if I could stay within a $150 budget.  Now, I know there are women out there who spend a lot less on their weekly grocery bill, but you got to start somewhere.  I have found a few blogs that are very helpful with letting you know what the weekly deals are and coupons to use, etc.  So, I headed out today with my list for 4 different stores.  It took me about 1 1/2 hours to shop and I only spent $118.  Wow!  So, now the competitive streak in me has been awakened and I want to beat my PR next week!  Ha!  I will be studying the Walgreens and CVS tips on different blogs and figuring out how to make my coupons work hard for me.  I see a new addiction coming on.  My 12 week Storm Force Fitness challenge has been coming along wonderfully.  I have dropped 2% bodyfat in the last 3 weeks even though I only got 2 of the 4 workouts done last week due to business getting in the way.  I am making up for them this week while everyone else is enjoying a more relaxed week.  Ugh!  I am getting ready to launch my first book this week.  I have a few technical problems to fix with my webhost and my covers for the book and CD’s are being created right now.  Hope to have it all done soon.  I feel like it has already taken an eternity. Here is my workout plan today: Storm Force Pulse Pyramid II - 30 minute workout Meal Plan: Meal 1:  1 egg, 3 egg whites, spinach, red peppers, .5 oz colby jack cheese Meal 2:  Cottage cheese and blueberries, almonds Meal 3:  Cantaloupe and 4 cheese cubes (while shopping) Meal 4:  Post workout shake, apple, almonds Meal 5:  Homemade chicken soup in the crockpot Meal 6:  1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 12 almonds Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Kathy Lowers, Founder of Considering Homeschooling This week we are hoping to hear some happy cheeping from the chicken eggs we are incubating.  Homeschooling is ideal for do-it-yourself living creature projects and the butterfly, lady bug, praying mantis, silk worm projects -- to name a few -- that we have done were easy and yet so valuable. How wondrous it is to view the metamorphosis of one of God’s creatures, right in your own home. A public school classroom might have a fish tank with some leaves and a chrysalis or an incubator with some eggs; the students may or may not see the butterfly or chicks emerge during school hours.  Their teacher might teach the life cycle of a butterfly or chicken, but no credit to the Creator could be given. In contrast, Christian parents who teach their children at home find that such a project rises to an infinitely higher dimension.  At home, there is a bonding between parents and children and among siblings as they experience a living miracle -- and there is a resulting acknowledgement and awe of the One who designed it. So, I jumped at the chance when a homeschooling 4-H mom offered her incubator and a clutch of chicken eggs.  Never having incubated eggs before, I assumed it would be a cinch, just like a cocoon.  Just pop the eggs in the incubator and after a while, you would get your chicks, right?   After some web sites, books and experience regarding this subject, the children and I discovered that incubating can be a complicated and risky process. For one, the incubator we have is not the expensive, digital kind that controls its own temperature and humidity.  It is the old-fashioned version where you have to keep checking the temperature, which seems to meander up and down on a whim.  A few times it got below or above the instructed 99.5 degrees, and we panicked, tweaking it back to the proper temperature, but wondering did the fluctuation affect the chicks? Chicks cannot survive extreme temperature deviations.  And then you have to keep the humidity at the ideal level, which varies according to where you are in the 21 day cycle.  You have to add water into special wells in the incubator.  If there is not enough water, the chicks will stick to the shells.  If too much humidity is present, the chicks will drown. Eggs in an incubator must also be turned several times a day.  A hen instinctively turns her eggs to keep the developing embryos from sticking to the sides of the shell. One of more interesting aspects of the incubator project is “candling” the eggs. You shine a light through the eggs to see if you can determine if there is life in them; sometimes you see a beating heart or movement -- very cool.  What you usually find is that some eggs were never fertile while others started growing but “quit” -- either because the environment was not right or just because they were not meant to make it.  You have to remove the non-living ones because they could explode. Out of fourteen eggs we had five infertile ones, two rotten ones, and seven that may or may not make it -- we’ll know in about three days.  I have to admit I have felt pretty incompetent and stressed when I thought the humidity or temperature was off.  But, we tried our very best to give these eggs the cleanest, safest, most conducive environment possible for coming out healthy.  That, along with prayer, gives us some optimism. I could not help realizing there is a strong analogy here between incubating eggs and raising up children.  While at the beginning all the eggs appear the same, all children start out with such potential, such seeming innocence before some are destroyed by the way of the world. But some Christian parents think that they can place the fragile soul of a child in any old environment, like the extreme anti-God environment of government schools, believing that child will come out just fine through going to Sunday school 45 minutes each week. These naïve parents imagine their child being a great evangelist to all the other youngsters there, not realizing their child is being evangelized more smoothly and intensely, by humanist teachers and curriculum. By the time the process is nearing the end, some have really become rotten, both eggs and children.  While sometimes there was no preventing a bad egg, Christian parents putting their children in the perverted incubators of the public schools is by far the biggest contributor to failed children. If you are a loving parent who really knows Jesus and adheres to His Word in all you do, if you can create an uplifting, safe, inspiring Christian environment for children in your home – and I am convinced most real Believers are more than capable of this -- then you should be homeschooling.  Don’t let the world incubate the souls of your children; God gave that job to you!

On Saturday, May 2, Exploring Homeschooling will be hosting a Homeschool Information Night featuring a panel of homeschool support group leaders.  The panel will include: Janice Henry is currently a member of the Regional Advisory Board of the statewide organization, Christian Home Educators of California (CHEA). In 1992 she and her husband, Kirk, entered homeschool leadership, in spite of the fact that they had just begun to homeschool themselves.  The initial group of people, who were simply interested in getting information about homeschooling, developed into a CHEA Support Group and Independent Student Program.  With members in Los Angeles, Orange, and surrounding counties, Southern California Christian Academy (SCCA) continues to help families homeschool with joy and excellence. Janice's warm yet thought provoking messages encourage parents to build strong children and youth for the Kingdom of God through private Christian education in the home. Debe Haller, wife to Danny for 35 years, and mother of four home-schooled graduates, has been a respected leader in home education for over twenty years.  With truth and humor she shares Biblical principles and practical applications she has learned by the grace of God in the areas of being a wife, creative ways to get children to cooperate, teaching techniques, and home school organization.  The Haller family own and operate Hope Country Schoolhouse Homeschool Book Store and Hope Christian Academy PSP in Garden Grove. Debe is the author of The Challenge of Raising Cain and Mrs. Mom: Agonized or Organized? Rebecca Kocsis, is a veteran homeschooling mother, Support Network Director for the Christian Home Educators Association of California.  Along with her husband, Ed, she graduated all five of her children from their homeschool and is proud to say that her grandchildren are now being homeschooled, as well.  Rebecca serves as the Director of Olive Tree Christian School, a PSP serving Riverside County and much of the surrounding Southland. Terri Bonstrom and husband Greg recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. They have one son, Jimmy, who will be 16 in May of this year.  Jimmy has been homeschooled since birth.  Greg and Terri currently lead a support group for families, South Orange County Christian hOmeschoolers (SOCCO), which offers a private website for members to share their homeschool trials and triumphs, and to volunteer their God-given resources with each other to support one another in their homeschool journey. For more information on SOCCO, please visit the public website: www.socco-online.com Toni Muus and her husband Jerry have been married for 33 years and have homeschooled their three children since 1988.  Their youngest son will be graduating in 2010.  Along with homeschooling Toni has been in some form of leadership with Whittier Christian Schools PSP and has been its Director since 1999. Posted by Considering Homeschooling.

Reports of another Montauk Monster are circulating the web.

Are your kids on MySpace or Facebook?  Then they may be facing the same dangers that they might in public school.   According to the New York Times and Washington Post, MySpace has deleted 29,000 registered sexual predators from its membership and Facebook is not far behind... and those are just the sexual predators that they found out about! The good news is that there is a full featured, parent driven social networking site on the way just for Christian homeschoolers.  I can't divulge too much right now as the project is still in development, but the principals are interested in finding likeminded Christian homeschoolers as investors and ministry partners for this new online community. If you are interested in becoming an investor or ministry partner in this ground floor opportunity, please email homeschoolspace@gmail.com.

On Saturday, May 2, Exploring Homeschooling will be hosting a Homeschool Information Night featuring a panel of homeschool support group leaders.  The panel will include: Janice Henry is currently a member of the Regional Advisory Board of the statewide organization, Christian Home Educators of California (CHEA). In 1992 she and her husband, Kirk, entered homeschool leadership, in spite of the fact that they had just begun to homeschool themselves.  The initial group of people, who were simply interested in getting information about homeschooling, developed into a CHEA Support Group and Independent Student Program.  With members in Los Angeles, Orange, and surrounding counties, Southern California Christian Academy (SCCA) continues to help families homeschool with joy and excellence. Janice's warm yet thought provoking messages encourage parents to build strong children and youth for the Kingdom of God through private Christian education in the home. Debe Haller, wife to Danny for 35 years, and mother of four home-schooled graduates, has been a respected leader in home education for over twenty years.  With truth and humor she shares Biblical principles and practical applications she has learned by the grace of God in the areas of being a wife, creative ways to get children to cooperate, teaching techniques, and home school organization.  The Haller family own and operate Hope Country Schoolhouse Homeschool Book Store and Hope Christian Academy PSP in Garden Grove. Debe is the author of The Challenge of Raising Cain and Mrs. Mom: Agonized or Organized? Rebecca Kocsis, is a veteran homeschooling mother, Support Network Director for the Christian Home Educators Association of California.  Along with her husband, Ed, she graduated all five of her children from their homeschool and is proud to say that her grandchildren are now being homeschooled, as well.  Rebecca serves as the Director of Olive Tree Christian School, a PSP serving Riverside County and much of the surrounding Southland. Terri Bonstrom and husband Greg recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. They have one son, Jimmy, who will be 16 in May of this year.  Jimmy has been homeschooled since birth.  Greg and Terri currently lead a support group for families, South Orange County Christian hOmeschoolers (SOCCO), which offers a private website for members to share their homeschool trials and triumphs, and to volunteer their God-given resources with each other to support one another in their homeschool journey. For more information on SOCCO, please visit the public website: www.socco-online.com Toni Muus and her husband Jerry have been married for 33 years and have homeschooled their three children since 1988.  Their youngest son will be graduating in 2010.  Along with homeschooling Toni has been in some form of leadership with Whittier Christian Schools PSP and has been its Director since 1999. Posted by Considering Homeschooling.

Kathy Lowers, Founder of Considering Homeschooling This week we are hoping to hear some happy cheeping from the chicken eggs we are incubating.  Homeschooling is ideal for do-it-yourself living creature projects and the butterfly, lady bug, praying mantis, silk worm projects -- to name a few -- that we have done were easy and yet so valuable. How wondrous it is to view the metamorphosis of one of God’s creatures, right in your own home. A public school classroom might have a fish tank with some leaves and a chrysalis or an incubator with some eggs; the students may or may not see the butterfly or chicks emerge during school hours.  Their teacher might teach the life cycle of a butterfly or chicken, but no credit to the Creator could be given. In contrast, Christian parents who teach their children at home find that such a project rises to an infinitely higher dimension.  At home, there is a bonding between parents and children and among siblings as they experience a living miracle -- and there is a resulting acknowledgement and awe of the One who designed it. So, I jumped at the chance when a homeschooling 4-H mom offered her incubator and a clutch of chicken eggs.  Never having incubated eggs before, I assumed it would be a cinch, just like a cocoon.  Just pop the eggs in the incubator and after a while, you would get your chicks, right?   After some web sites, books and experience regarding this subject, the children and I discovered that incubating can be a complicated and risky process. For one, the incubator we have is not the expensive, digital kind that controls its own temperature and humidity.  It is the old-fashioned version where you have to keep checking the temperature, which seems to meander up and down on a whim.  A few times it got below or above the instructed 99.5 degrees, and we panicked, tweaking it back to the proper temperature, but wondering did the fluctuation affect the chicks? Chicks cannot survive extreme temperature deviations.  And then you have to keep the humidity at the ideal level, which varies according to where you are in the 21 day cycle.  You have to add water into special wells in the incubator.  If there is not enough water, the chicks will stick to the shells.  If too much humidity is present, the chicks will drown. Eggs in an incubator must also be turned several times a day.  A hen instinctively turns her eggs to keep the developing embryos from sticking to the sides of the shell. One of more interesting aspects of the incubator project is “candling” the eggs. You shine a light through the eggs to see if you can determine if there is life in them; sometimes you see a beating heart or movement -- very cool.  What you usually find is that some eggs were never fertile while others started growing but “quit” -- either because the environment was not right or just because they were not meant to make it.  You have to remove the non-living ones because they could explode. Out of fourteen eggs we had five infertile ones, two rotten ones, and seven that may or may not make it -- we’ll know in about three days.  I have to admit I have felt pretty incompetent and stressed when I thought the humidity or temperature was off.  But, we tried our very best to give these eggs the cleanest, safest, most conducive environment possible for coming out healthy.  That, along with prayer, gives us some optimism. I could not help realizing there is a strong analogy here between incubating eggs and raising up children.  While at the beginning all the eggs appear the same, all children start out with such potential, such seeming innocence before some are destroyed by the way of the world. But some Christian parents think that they can place the fragile soul of a child in any old environment, like the extreme anti-God environment of government schools, believing that child will come out just fine through going to Sunday school 45 minutes each week. These naïve parents imagine their child being a great evangelist to all the other youngsters there, not realizing their child is being evangelized more smoothly and intensely, by humanist teachers and curriculum. By the time the process is nearing the end, some have really become rotten, both eggs and children.  While sometimes there was no preventing a bad egg, Christian parents putting their children in the perverted incubators of the public schools is by far the biggest contributor to failed children. If you are a loving parent who really knows Jesus and adheres to His Word in all you do, if you can create an uplifting, safe, inspiring Christian environment for children in your home – and I am convinced most real Believers are more than capable of this -- then you should be homeschooling.  Don’t let the world incubate the souls of your children; God gave that job to you!

Well, you thought that cell phone would keep your kid safe if there was another school shooting.  Who knew the shots would actually be homemade porn made with that very same cell phone?!? File this under the complete pornification of our society.  What's an awkward teen boy do to get a date now?  He sends a girl a picture of his junk. Parents, can I speak frankly here?  If you are not considering homeschooling, you are completely nuts. From the Cincinnati Enquirer: Teens here are taking nude photos of themselves or others, sending them on their cell phones or posting them online. Some teens do it as a joke. For others, it's the new bold pickup line to get a date. A year ago, a 19-year-old Goshen cheerleading coach was charged and prosecuted for a misdemeanor, contributing to the unruliness of a child, for taking a topless photo of herself and a 15-year-old girl. A Glen Este Middle School boy was taken to juvenile court during the last school year for taking explicit photos of his girlfriend. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com last month revealed results of a study that showed 20 percent of teens say they have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves. The results don't surprise local teens, school officials, police officers and others. "If I were to go through the cell phones in this building right now of 1,500 students, I would venture to say that half to two-thirds have indecent photos, either of themselves or somebody else in school," said Jim Brown, school resource officer at Glen Este High School. Turpin High School Principal Peggy Johnson thinks that the results would be similar - about 50-50 - in her building. According to the national study, most teens who send sexually suggestive content send to boyfriends or girlfriends, while others say they send such material to those they want to date or hook up with or to someone they only know online. Brown, who also is Glen Este Middle School's resource officer, said of the 14-year-old boy's cell phone photos last year: "They were as graphic as you would see in any Penthouse magazine, I've been told." The study also showed that 44 percent of teens say it's common for sexually explicit images and text messages - sexting - to be shared with people other than the intended recipient. "Guys who get pictures like this from girls, I don't think girls understand that guys gossip way more than girls," said Taylor McCleod, 17, a Withrow University High School senior who is a teen leader for the Postponing Sexual Involvement program. "And when a guy gets a picture like that, he's not just going to keep it between him and the girl. He's going to take that and show every guy that he knows that knows that girl. And every time somebody looks at her, it's going to be a loss of respect for her." The stakes of taking and sending sexually explicit photos can be high, compared to the thrill at the time. The consequences can range from humiliation to losing out on jobs to going to court. When kids are 14 or 15, Brown said, they don't often make the right decisions. "They think, 'I have the right to decide what's best for me.' The next thing you know, it's on YouTube, and you become an international star because you're exposing part of your body. ... Then, they want to retrieve their good reputation, and they can't." Kids have lost scholarships and jobs because of what's posted on Web sites, Brown said. Many kids have "wised up," taking photos of body parts, but not faces, to avoid detection. And while some teens intend for the suggestive photos to be seen by only one person, they might not think those photos will be forwarded or that something posted on the Internet lives on. "I don't think it even crosses their mind," Daniel "Woody" Breyer, chief deputy prosecutor in Clermont County, said. "I think that kids are in the moment. What's going to happen today? What are we doing tonight? What are we doing this weekend?" Going to court might not cross their minds, either. Prosecutors evaluate the intent of the photo when deciding if charges are warranted. "If this is clearly just a joke and everyone involved thinks it's funny, now somebody's mom sees it and gets mad. Technically, a charge could be filed," said Julie Wilson, chief assistant prosecutor and public information officer for the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office. "We're asking police to evaluate if it's a criminal charge or a matter that could be handled by the school or parents. For whatever reason, we have not seen a lot of these cases." With so many implications, why do kids do it? Besides peer pressure, the practice is provoked by what's considered acceptable in this culture, Breyer said, citing videos, such as "Girls Gone Wild." "What is acceptable behavior in our country has just gone through the floor," Breyer said. Christopher Kraus, director of the Postponing Sexual Involvement program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said that in his 20 years of working in adolescent medicine at the hospital, he's yet to see a teenage trend that does not mirror a larger adult trend. "Adolescent sexuality is part of normal human development," Kraus said. "Teens are trying to figure out how to express their sexuality appropriately. They are learning, and they are learning from adults." Kraus, who also is project manager for the Ohio Department of Health's new Guidelines for Sexual Health and Adoption Education, Grades 7-12, said teens are learning how to sort out many sexual messages in the media, including text messages. "Some messages are complimentary. Some are offensive. Some are confusing. Each message is different." 'Kids Gone Wild' Another teen Postponing Sexual Involvement leader, Mariah McCollum, who has received unwanted and unsolicited photos from an acquaintance, talked about the trend. "Every day or every other day, I hear about a new video of one of my peers. There's a new video going around involving sexual activities," said Mariah, a 17-year-old senior at Withrow University High School. "I think it's pretty lame for a male to send you pictures without consent. ... Who says I want to see your private areas?" Mariah said, adding that she lost a lot of respect for the boy who sent it. Meanwhile, Brown said parents need to pay attention to their kids' use of technology. Part of the problem is that kids' inhibitions are knocked away by alcohol-fueled parties, where many sexually explicit photo opportunities occur, he said. "It's 'Kids Gone Wild,' with technology being provided by the parents," he said.

Homeschool websites, lesson plans, and activities to go along with current and historical events for August

Science Friday is a live news/talk show about science that is broadcast every Friday on National Public Radio (NPR) stations nationwide. NPR has made new video-based science lessons available to complement the show free of charge on their Web site.

What if there was a way to jump start your student’s college degree, even during the high school years? What if a college degree could be earned along side your high school courses? CLEP and DSST exams provide exactly that opportunity. College credit is available to the high school student. There are many advantages to pursuing CLEP courses during high school. Many course are available that contain material your high school student already knows, thereby reducing the time on campus, lightening the college work load, reducing the cost of tuition, and saving time that can be used for work and ministry. Many students can finish High School with their college core degree requirements completed. Some students can even finish an associates or bachelors degree during their high school years. Starting on the journey of CLEP for High School can be intimidating. Here is a step by step plan:1. Pray. Make sure this is the path the Lord has for you. 2. Make sure your spouse is on board with a different approach to High School. 3. Check your state homeschooling laws. Many states have mandated curriculum while others provide more flexibility. Keep your state regulations in mind as you plan. 4. Acquire a government issued photo ID for your student. Don’t wait on this one as some federal regulations have increased the wait time for such identification. This, along with a Social Security number, is required to take a CLEP or DSST exam. 5. Consider going for a complete degree using credit by examination. Visit TESC's website and let your kids dream about possible degrees, starting with Associates degrees. This dreaming can give you insight into where the Lord may be leading your student.6. If your student has a particular college in mind, contact them and ask how many CLEP courses they accept, which ones and what score they require. Colleges differ as to which CLEP courses they accept and how many.7. Get copies of CLEP Official Study Guide 2010 and Cracking the CLEP, 5th Edition (College Test Preparation). There is nothing like having practice tests in your hands. These books have one of each of the possible CLEP exams and will be used later for practice tests.8. Determine interest. What areas interest your student? CLEP courses are available in 34 subject areas. Scan thru the possible CLEP courses on this site for courses your kids may be ready for already (or could be in a few weeks) or courses that interest them. 9. Consider putting aside ideas about covering multiple subjects at once. We go faster with only one or two courses at a time.10. Use the TESC website degree descriptions to build a template for the possible degree your student is interested it. Remember that you can customize your degree but you don't have to have the full plan to get started.11. Choose a course, or two. Confirm that the textbook or class your student is taking matches the CLEP exam content. Always refer to the exam description found at College Board.12. Search for a testing center near you. They can be found using the search at College Board. Try the nearby university or community college.Study. Take practice tests. Review. Make appointment. Take CLEP test.Post any questions. We’re here to help.

Looking for resources for Constitution Day activities? The Library of Congress has a variety of sources you can use. Explore the Creating the United States online exhibit and learn more about the impact of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence on U.S. history. Explore the interactive Constitution where students can learn more about the Constitution and origin of important parts of the Constitution. The Learn More will lead you to links for other exhibits, online resources, webcasts and lessons you can use to help students learn more about the Constitution.

US Constitution Day lesson plans, websites, and activities

I had the pleasure of reviewing Skinny Dip Candles recently, and I was really amazed by them! They are truly unlike anything I've seen. You actually burn the candle, let the candle melt slightly, and then POUR the melted oils on your skin!! I know this sounds painful, but it is simply warm, nurturing lotion! My little girls even love it! They constantly ask me to rub it on them! You see, because of the ingredients in Skinny Dip Candles, they have a very low melt point. When fully melted they're just 102 degrees - and that's not even as warm as a hot tub!This is from the Skinny Dip website:Ingredients include: cosmetic-grade soy, avocado oil, coconut oil, shea butter, beeswax, sunflower oil, cocoa butter, vitamin E, and scented oils for aroma. The ingredients are not only natural, but they are extremely rich and moisturizing. A little bit will go a very long way, so please use sparingly. When you use the right amount, the melted oils will soak into your skin completely within just a few minutes.How can you use the Skinny Dip Candle?Cuticle treatments - it's like a paraffin dip, only better! You don't have to remove the "wax."Dry elbows - the Skinny Dip Candle can be used melted, or unmelted and massaged directly into the skin.Heels and feet - for dry feet in winter, or bare sandal feet in summer, the Skinny DipCandle will help get your feet softer and smoother in no time!Massage - use a more generous portion for a therapeutic, pampering, or sensual body massage.Anywhere you skin is dry or flakey. That can be arms and legs, especially if you live in dryer climates.Would you LOVE to go Skinny Dipping?? :)The wonderful people at Skinny Dip are offering to one lucky reader of The Vaagen Family Blog a Pamper Pack! Each Pamper Pack comes with a full size Skinny Dip Candle, a single bath sized Dead Sea bath salts in same scent as candle, and a natural lip balm. You can pick your own lip balm flavor and candle scent!To enter:1. Visit the Skinny Dip site by clicking HERE, and leave a comment telling me what you love the most!2. Subscribe to this blog (enter your email address in upper right corner), and comment that you do.3. Follow this blog (in right hand column), and comment that you do.4. Become a fan of this blog on Facebook by clicking HERE, and comment that you do.5. Email this contest out to your friends, and copy me on it at vaagen@bellsouth.net6. Follow me on Twitter (vaagen) and ReTweet this contest on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vaagen/statuses/3176927070. Comment below that you did.7. Favorite this blog on Technorati by clicking HEREThe winner will be chosen by random drawing on http://www.random.org/integers/ on Friday, August 14 at 6pm. Good luck!Thank you for coming to Mingle Over Mocha with Anna!

Do you have a furry little one in your life?Do you love to spoil your furry friend?Stonewall Jackson, my Chihuahua, has a closet full of clothes. He loves to show them off when we go out, because he gets even more attention that way! When Posh Puppy Boutique sent me a preppy little sweater vest for my little Stonewall, he was thrilled. Here he is in his new vest. He has his paparazzi look perfected! (see below) I discovered Posh Puppy Boutique, an adorable online store that sells EVERYTHING your pup’s little heart could ever desire.Here are some of my favorite items from their store… Posh Puppy Boutique even has Live Support on their website! You can shop for cat clothes, gift certificates, hair products, treats, memorial items… anything you can think of!The products they carry are by the best designers out there, such as Juicy Couture!Posh Puppy Boutique has been featured on “Good Day Sacramento,” in Dog Fancy Magazine, in the Continental Kennel Club Magazine… and the list goes on and on!Don’t have time to shop? No worries!Posh Puppy Boutique even has a Personal Shopper link!Wouldn’t you LOVE to have your own Posh Puppy Boutique item?The Posh Puppy Boutique has been generous enough to offer one reader of Vaagen Family Blog a $25 gift certificate to their store!How can you enter?1. Comment below, with your email address2. Visit the Posh Puppy Boutique Site by clicking HERE, and leave a comment telling me what you love the most!3. Subscribe to this blog (enter your email address in upper right corner), and comment that you do.4. Follow this blog (in right hand column), and comment that you do.5. Become a fan of this blog on Facebook by clicking HERE, and comment that you do.6. Subscribe to the Posh Puppy website by clicking HERE.7. Follow me on Twitter (vaagen) and ReTweet this contest on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vaagen/statuses/3665895083. Comment below that you did.8. Favorite this blog on Technorati by clicking HEREThe winner will be chosen by random drawing on http://www.random.org/integers/ on Friday, September 11th at 6pm. Good luck!Thank you for coming to Mingle Over Mocha with Anna!

Drop what you’re doing, and head over to the Julie Knowles Pottery Store on Etsy! Visit her site: CLICK MEWhen she sent me her pottery to review, I instantly put it on TOP of my china cabinet, so it would be front and foremost for people to see as they come through the front door!Now, I love it so much, I got a custom candle poured into it, so it can be a permanent centerpiece in my kitchen!Julie Knowles Pottery is obviously VERY carefully made, and much effort was put into each detail. I love the glossy coating. It really makes it stand out from the rest of my pottery! I chose the polka dot bowl, because I am a polka dot fanatic! The colors were perfectly represented on her website! I am a fast fan of Julie Knowles, and will be ordering plenty of Christmas gifts from her!Here are a few of her pieces from her site! GORGEOUS, right??HOW MUCH would you love to OWN a Julie Knowles piece????Julie is offering a $15 shopping spree in her Etsy store! Her peices are very affordable, so you will have a ball shopping!To enter, please do any or all of the following:1. Comment below, with your email address2. Visit the Julie Knowles Pottery site by clicking HERE. Send Julie Knowles a direct email at JulieKnowlesPottery@yahoo.com and telling her PERSONALLY which item on her site you adore the most! This is a really important step, because your feedback is very important to her! Please comment below that you emailed her. 3. Subscribe to this blog (enter your email address in upper right corner), and comment that you do.4. Follow this blog (in right hand column), and comment that you do.5. Become a fan of this blog on Facebook by clicking HERE, and comment that you do.6. Email this contest out to your friends, and copy me on it at vaagen@bellsouth.net7. Follow me on Twitter (vaagen) and ReTweet this contest on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vaagen/statuses/3559029974. Comment below that you did.8. Favorite this blog on Technorati by clicking HEREThe winner will be chosen by random drawing on http://www.random.org/integers/ on Wednesday, September 9th at 6pm. Good luck!Thank you for coming to Mingle Over Mocha with Anna!

I LOVE the Gamewright Company! Do you know them yet? After reading this review, you will certainly want to add them to your gift idea list for Christmas!  From the Gamewright website:  “Gamewright was founded in 1994 by four parents whose kids wanted great games. From the start, our mission has remained clear: Create the highest quality family games with outstanding play-value. Guided by themes and experiences that transcend age and salted with a bit of irreverence, our games are designed to foster laughter, learning, friendship and fun.  Over the years our family has grown to over 50 games, 150 awards, and countless happy players.” Include my family in that “countless happy players” group! The Gamewright company was VERY generous in allowing me to review three of their brand new games!  My children LOVED playing with all of them.  I wish I could post a video review of the kids playing the games, but to anyone outside of my home, it would have just looked like pure chaos.  :) My youngest two children absolutely loved Ring-O Flamingo!  It is their new pastime.  It is perfect for younger children, since they picked up on the rules of the game immediately!  They are 2 and 4, and they weren’t the ONLY ones who loved the game.  My older two children also love playing it… and so do I! The object of the game:  Ring the most flamingos by shooting life preservers from your playing piece!  But be careful, don’t ring a crocodile instead!  Here is a picture of my kiddos having a ball playing it! The next game we reviewed was, “Do You See What I See?”. We had a great time trying to collect all of the items on our Keep Me tiles!  This game is based on the award winning book, “Can You See What I See?” by Walter Wick.  Just to prove to you that children of all ages can play this game, my two year old beat the pants off the entire rest of the family when we played this game!! The next amazing game they sent us was BOOCHIE!!  :) This is just an incredibly fun game!  Think, horseshoes meets croquet, meets lawn darts, meets… well, I guess this game is actually just all-together unique!! Here is a picture of my kiddos having great fun with Boochie-   Watch this great commercial on the Boochie Game! Now, it’s YOUR turn!! The Gamewright Company is offering YOUR FAMILY a 2009 Gamewright game of your OWN!! To enter, please do the following: Mandatory for Entry: Comment below, telling me which game from THIS GROUP you would love to own if you win.  Be sure to leave your email in the comment, in case you win! Become a follower of this blog, and comment that you do For Extra Entries: Retweet this contest (http://twitter.com/vaagen/statuses/3393681764) and comment that you do Gain an extra entry for asking your friends to subscribe to this blog, and commenting with their screen name Post this contest to your Facebook page, and leave the URL in the comments below. Become a follower of this blog on its Facebook page, and comment that you do Favorite this blog on Technorati (link in right hand column of this blog), and comment that you do Place my blog button on your blogsite, and leave the URL below This contest will end on Tuesday, August 25th at 6pm EST.  GOOD LUCK! Thank you for coming to Mingle Over Mocha with Anna!

Ladies and Gentlemen,Drop what you're doing. Take 5 minutes to enter this giveaway. You will be THRILLED when you win! The WheelyCow and WheelyBugs are premiering TODAY on Tori and Dean (http://tori-and-dean.oxygen.com/), and this giveaway was scheduled to coincide with the premier! WheelyCows and WheelyBugs retail for $79.99 plus tax on the Prince Lionheart website, but thanks to Prince Lionheart, you can WIN one from the Vaagen Family!Prince Lionheart was so generous to share their WheelyCow with my family! I believe my two year old has been on it ever since it came in the mail 2 months ago! She asks if she can sit on it to eat!This amazing ride-on toy is unlike any other I've seen!! And with 4 kids, I have seen my share of ride-on toys! I'd love to share some of my favorite things about the WheelyCow:1. The wheels GLIDE. They don't leave marks on my hardwood floors! 2. The WheelyCow is QUIET! Even when my little 4 year old rides on it... and that happens very often! No more wondering if it is thundering outside, or if the house is falling down, or if the world is ending when my girls ride through the house!!3. Easy to clean! The WheelyCow is so wonderfully easy to clean- I simply wipe it with a damp towel, and because it has a super-smooth surface, no spilled drinks get stuck in impossible-to-reach cracks... there are none!4. Happiness factor. My girls absolutely LOVE this toy. Of all their toys, this is at the top of the list. I can't help but smile when they keep it by the bottom of the stairs. They wake up in the morning, come downstairs, hop aboard the WheelyCow, and ride it straight to the breakfast table! :)Now you know MY favorite things about the WheelyCow, but let me share my daughters' favorite things about it:1. "The top is made of 'comfy squishy stuff.'" Remember, I'm passing along THEIR words, here! :) (The top is made of leather, with a soft padding underneath! It is VERY comfy!2. "It can go really fast in circles!" This toy allows them to "spin out" in one place! The wheels swivel. allowing for MUCH more fun!3. "The horns." I guess they felt like this part was self-explanatory. The horns on the front of the WheelyCow are on springs, and they wiggle like little bobble-heads! :)4. "The handle is not like normal ones." The handle bar is a semi-circle, which I love for two reasons. First, safety. My girls like to fly around on their riding toys, and they have landed across a square handle bar before, and that hurts! The WheelyCow has a soft, semi-circle handle, which would be much more comfy in that situation!Thank you SO MUCH to Prince Lionheart for allowing me to review this AND the Stroller Accessory package! I truly LOVE your products!Readers, do yourself a favor, and enter this giveaway today!To enter:1. Comment below, with your email address2. Visit the "Prince Lionheart" site by clicking HERE, and leave a comment telling me which WheelyBug or WheelyCow you like the most!3. Subscribe to this blog (enter your email address in upper right corner), and comment that you do. **SUBSCRIBERS may leave 2 comments (2 entries) stating that they subscribe! I love my subscribers! Thank you!!**4. Follow this blog (in right hand column), and comment that you do. **FOLLOWERS may leave 2 comments (2 entries) stating that they subscribe! I love my subscribers! Thank you!!**5. Become a fan of this blog on Facebook by clicking HERE, and comment that you do.6. Email this contest out to your friends, and copy me on it at vaagen@bellsouth.net7. Follow me on Twitter (vaagen) and ReTweet this contest on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vaagen/statuses/3070106224. Comment below that you did. You can do this once per day, and leave a comment each time you tweet the contest for an extra entry!!8. Favorite this blog on Technorati by clicking HERE The winner will be chosen by random drawing on http://www.random.org/integers/ on Saturday, August 15th at 6pm. Good luck!Thank you for coming to Mingle Over Mocha with Anna!